George Sanders (actor)

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George Sanders (1972)

George Sanders (born July 3, 1906 in Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire , † April 25, 1972 in Castelldefels , Spain ) was a British actor who won the Oscar for the role of the cynical theater critic Addison DeWitt in the classic film All About Eva . He became famous for his depictions of cultivated, but often unsympathetic figures.

life and career

George Sanders was the second of three children. His parents, Henry Sanders (1873-1961) and Margaret Sanders (1875-1967), were British. He lived with them in Russia until the outbreak of the Russian Revolution . After studying at Bedales School in Hampshire , Sanders began studying at Brighton College and later at Technical College in Manchester . The course served to prepare him to follow his father into the textile business. As a businessman, he first worked in the textile and later in the tobacco industry. After a brief stay in South America, he returned to the United Kingdom and, encouraged by Greer Garson , first stepped onto a stage in the early 1930s . He took on a small role in the Ballyhoo Revue . He made his film debut in 1936 in the film Find the Lady . He played one of the leading roles in his second feature film in 1936, Strange Cargo . More films followed before Sanders tried his luck in Hollywood . He shot his first American film Signals to London ( Lloyds of London ) for the 20th Century Fox studio .

He quickly made a name for himself in the role of adventure hero and was able to increase his popularity with memorable depictions of villains ( The House of the Seven Gables , 1940). His external appearance predestined him not only as an actor in aristocrats ( Amber, the great courtesan ), but also for roles in the popular crime film series of the time. He played Simon Templar ( The Saint ) in a film series from 1939 , and a similar role was added in 1941 with The Falcon . Increasingly committed to one type of role, he said goodbye to the Falcon role by leaving it to his brother Thomas Charles Sanders, who also worked as an actor under the pseudonym Tom Conway . Alfred Hitchcock cast Sanders in his first Hollywood films Rebecca (1940) and The Foreign Correspondent (1940).

During World War II he also appeared in propaganda films , such as the films I Was a Nazi Spy (1939) and Manhunt (1941). After the war, Sanders devoted himself more to character roles. He often played eloquent and cultured, at the same time dodgy characters from the British upper class - for example as Lord Henry Wotton in the Oscar Wilde film The Portrait of Dorian Gray (1945) and as a secretly married admirer of Gene Tierney in A Ghost Free Feet (1947). For his portrayal of theater critic Addison DeWitt in the film drama All About Eve (dt .: All About Eve ), he was awarded the Oscar as Best Supporting Actor rewarded.

In 1953 Sanders played in England on the side of Robert Taylor in the literary film Ivanhoe - The Black Knight . In 1954 he traveled to Naples , where he played the male lead at Ingrid Bergman's side under Roberto Rossellini's direction in the married drama Reise in Italien . Back in the United States, he played an aristocratic villain in J. Meade Falkner's filmed adventure story Moonfleet under Fritz Lang's direction in 1955 . After 1955, Sanders began to appear regularly in television series. In the classic science fiction - horror film Village of the Damned in 1960 took over the role of the actor retired physicist Gordon Zellaby. Sanders also voiced the tiger Shir Khan in the original version of the classic Disney cartoon The Jungle Book (1967). In the British horror film The Frog , (original title Psychomania ), by Don Sharp from 1973 Sanders played his last film role, a servant.

Private life and death

Sanders married Susan Larson in 1940 until 1949. In his second marriage, the actor was married to Zsa Zsa Gabor from 1949 . The marriage lasted until 1957. His third wife was the actress Benita Hume in 1959 , with whom he was married until her death in 1967. His marriage to Zsa Zsa Gabor's sister Magda in 1970 was short-lived and was annulled after a year. Sanders wrote an autobiography, Memoirs of a Professional Cad , in which he ironically commented on his résumé, as well as on his marriage to Zsa-Zsa Gabor.

George Sanders had repeatedly said that he would commit suicide at the age of 65 in order to avoid an old age. In the last years of his life he suffered increasingly from health problems. Shortly before his 66th birthday, his body was found in a hotel in Castelldefels near Barcelona . He had overdosed on sleeping pills and named boredom as the main reason for suicide in his suicide note. He left a note that began with the words: "Dear world, I am leaving you because I am bored."

German voice

George Sanders was mostly dubbed in Germany by Siegfried Schürenberg , who also gave Clark Gable his voice. The actors Curt Ackermann , Alf Marholm , Wolfgang Lukschy , Walther Suessenguth and Paul Klinger also gave him their voice, along with a few others.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Web links

Commons : George Sanders  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f George Sanders at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (English). Retrieved August 20, 2013.
  2. ^ A b Oxford Dictionary of National Biography George Sanders at oxforddnb.com. (English) Retrieved August 20, 2013.
  3. ↑ Profile George Sander Roger Fristoe at tcm.com/this-month/article. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
  4. ↑ George Sanders: Memoirs of a Professional Cad . Scarecrow Verlag, 1992, ISBN 0-8108-2579-1
  5. ↑ synchronous index George Sanders at synchronkartei.de
personal data
SURNAME Sanders, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH July 3, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1972
Place of death Barcelona , Spain